Just Plain Folk Music Organization "recognizing the other 98% of independent musicians" just announced winners and their annual Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
My solo bass album Outre won the 2009 Solo Instrumental Album award. It's not a big prize kind of award - just some recognition and for that I'm grateful. Thanks to everyone involved in my nomination and eventual award.
Unfortunately, I can't accept comments on this blog anymore because of a software password reset glitch with Moveable Type running on a Windows server. It's a long story. I'm sorry if you posted a comment and never saw it get approved. I can only post using an app like MarsEdit but can't access the admin area. It's a total cluster-fuck. It's not that I blew you off.
Well - that's not totally true - I'm sure there are a few comments in there that I would NOT have approved. :)
I do need to update this site - but I've been too busy with non-bass related stuff - including re-launching my sound design service - Alien Imaging.
The main bass line is the American P Bass running through a modified "synth" patch on the Boss GT10. It's NOT midi.
Guitar sounds are both actual guitar and piccolo bass. Although - once it hits the scrotum smasher - all that shit sounds the same anyway.
All the texture type effects were created from recording the sound of the Larkspur Ferry I ride into San Francisco every morning. I recorded "down below" near the back where engines are. I put the sound into a granular synth and tweaked.
I also changed the vocal melodically by pitch shifting various notes to support the harmonic minor flavor. Gives the track a totally different feel.
I follow a few artists I admire on Twitter. Among them is Imogen Heap.
As part of a promotion called "Twestival" to raise money to improve the quality drinking water in impoverished regions, Imogen Heap released the vocal tracks to a song that was never produced. She only had the vocal parts.
So I downloaded the tracks and built the song you hear above. You can do one also - till mid March 2009 I think.
I played / programmed / produced everything - there's bass, drums, guitars, synth, sound design. All the stuff I most enjoy doing. Playing, writing and knob-tweaking.
Owing to nothing more (i'm sure) than the high quality vocal tracks from Imogen - this is the most commercial sounding thing I've ever produced.
Of course, I also just ADORE Imogen Heap. She writes great songs, has a gorgeous voice and is a killer producer/sound designer in her own right.
She's the real deal, and time totally vanished for me while working on this track. That's a sign I think. :)
Secret evil plan part ii has me considering doing another take on the track all together.
But then again - maybe not.
Hope you enjoy. Donate - and try your own version!
As I don't have any gigs lined up right now - I don't feel any incentive to keep working on these tunes. Just how I roll.
So I figured I'd record them as they stand now for posterity. And also to remember what the hell I played 5 months from now when I want to finish these things.
Then - it hit me. I should record them to the Fostex G16 tape machine I picked up over the summer. I had yet to use it. It would be a great test.
This vid blog documents the effort. Well - about 9 minutes of it. It actually took several hours.
The video only includes samples of tracking 2 tunes - but I got video on all of the complete tunes. I'll put those up in another post when I get some time to knock it out.
Video takes FOOOOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEVAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Now, typically, that's exactly the kind of thing I'd say cuz it's funny or absurd and leave it at that. But this time - just putting the words out there made it different.
So I went to CD Baby and changed the price of my solo bass CD Outre - to $85.00.
So what happened?
I got a few e-mails from buyers and a call from CD Baby asking if it was a typo. If the real price was supposed to be $8.50.
No, I explained - the price is $85.00. To those that emailed and wanted the download version - I directed them to THIS $6.99 DRM free download of Outre. I get to keep all the money on that sale AND offer it at a lower price than on I can on CD Baby.
One copy did sell at $85.00. Thank you.
Why did I do it?
With EVERYONE talking about music being free, or close to free - I felt the need to indulge my contrarian impulse. Not only would I RAISE the price - I'd raise it absurdly. $85.00.
After I raised the price I began to think differently about music and artists pricing their works.
For example.
I occasionally go to art festivals here in the Bay Area. Every once in a while we'll see something that's truly striking. We'll look at it, marvel at how awesome it is - and then notice the price. Oh - $15,000. Oh well.
Obviously that artist carts that big ass painting or sculpture around to every art festival they can with the hope it finds the ONE person who will pay $15,000 for it.
We accept this dynamic for paintings - sculptures and other works of "fine art". But not for recorded music.
I decided to try to find the ONE person who would buy Outre for $85.00.
I did.
So now the experiment is over and the price will return to the level the "market" expects a CD to sell.
I don't have the answer to music pricing - or how to make music special in the same way that a painting or sculpture can be.
But it was fun to think about and price my album in the same way I might a sculpture or painting.
Wanna see me and others play weird/strange/cool/lovely bass music LIVE?
I have a gig coming up.
No shit.
Me - Jeff "How come I never get to see him play live" Schmidt. :)
Its a house concert in the San Jose area on Jan 23rd around 7:30pm - the Nerd-Farm Solo Bass Hootenanny! where I'll be joining Steve Lawson & Lobelia and Gustaf Fjelstrom. It's a casual but cool affair.
SEATING IS LIMITED - RESERVE your seat at this website.
I haven't played a proper show in a few months. This means I've forgotten how to play many of my tunes.
It may come as a shock - but I actually don't sit around playing my own music much.
So if I'm not gigging - I'm not playing the tunes. If I'm not playing the tunes for a few months - I forget how to play them.
They are, if I do say so - pretty frakking hard for me to play. I can't just "wing it". Wish I could.
In 07 I was playing gigs with such regularity that keeping my material in shape was easy.
But last year was reeeeeeeeealy mellow on solo bass gigs for me. Mostly by choice - but still.
So now, when someone asks me if I'm into doing a solo gig - all I can think about is the time and effort needed to bone up on my own music. Add a certain amount of laziness on my part and you start getting the idea.
That's Sporadic Gig Syndrome.
You should've seen me - hitting Youtube - watching my own stupid videos trying to figure out how I played some of that stuff. I'm such a tard.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: vote for your fav in the comments!
A.) lower my standards - don't practice & wing it!
B.) gig more. duh.
C.) write simpler music I can play without much prep.
vote now.
Anyway - it seems I'm fated to create music I'll need to incessantly practice. My cross to bare. Weep for me.
My feeling right now is that I'm probably not going to play much Outre material for this engagement. We'll see.
The idea of playing some of my newest musical sketches is far more exciting than spending hours re-learing/practicing older material.
I think I can safely say I have no "hits" that I'll need to play to "please the crowd" - so this shouldn't be a problem. :) If you plan on attending - and this is a problem - speak now cuz I'll have to work on it if you want to hear something. Otherwise I'm going rouge bitches! :)
Does anyone else have Sporadic Gig Syndrome?
Does anyone else write music they forget how to play?
Does anyone want to help me get - ya know - Frequent Gig Syndrome?
Drop a comment.
House Concerts are all the rage now cuz it's easier to put on than at a "proper" venue that often needs 200 people drinking expensive drinks in the house to make it worth their while.
If you want to put on a House Concert just drop me a note and we'll work something out.
Handwritten notes documenting advice from Pianist Thelonius Monk - captured by Saxophonist Steve Lacy circa 1960.
KFOG Program Director Dave Benson, the biggest jazz fan I know, came in contact with this jem and passed it along to me. It's great stuff. As Benson said - "you just want to have it framed"!
I'll have to settle for having it "blogged".
Click on the image to see the bigger version.
The most ironic bit to me - Monk saying "Don't play all those weird notes - play the melody!" Classic.
My favorite - 'Whatever you think can't be done - someone will come along and do it".
Amen to that!
The hating whitey bit at the end is a close second. ;)
Next to "what tuning is_____ tune in" another really popular question I get is about the reverb processing on my solo tune Still Silhouette from my CD Outre.
If you're not familiar with the tune you can grab a free listen on the Last FM OUTRE player.
Its fretless piccolo bass with increasingly strange reverb effects building in the background throughout the piece. When I asked for this kind of effect I had David Torn in my mind.
The effect was created old school style by my producer Cookie Marenco from OTR Studios in Belmont CA.
I was just smart enough to capture a bit of video of Cookie explaining how she creates the effect while we were in the studio.
Today, I got a few e-mails and myspace messages about this track (I think there's a post on a bass forum about it) so I found a bit of the video and uploaded it to the interwebs.
Obviously this is the old school way - with vintage Lexicon PCM and Super Prime Time verbs, delays, Eventide Harmonizers and real time parameter manipulation (performance)
Not exactly something I can bring out on shows without dropping about 20K in gear and as much IQ to be stupid enough to bring it all out to venues.
Thankfully, there's a reasonable alternative.
I created an effect chain in Ableton Live on my laptop with plug-ins.
It's not exactly the same thing - but it's very, very close to the effect created for the CD.
The main key to the alternative sound is the use of an effect called "Crystalizer".
It's a cascading pitch-shifted reverb/delay process.
You can find it in plugs like SoundToys and Guitar Rig. While the SoundToys version is waaaay better (I think it's based on the Eventide algorithms) the Guitar Rig version is what I have on the laptop and it works just fine.
You can hear that effect in performance on the 2 "ruiner severhead" videos I posted "SEVERED" AND "BOUND".
The combination of these processes is something I've come to call SMOKE because I can't fit "cascading pitch-shifted reverbs & delays" on the return label.
UPDATE:
ok - I realized it's totally easy to just show this Ableton Live chain on video. I don't have a screencast app so I just pointed the camera at the computer screen - ghetto style!
